DIGI-QUARTZ_ _ _| ONE WEEK LATER {RELATIVE TO THE LAST CHAPTER}_ _ _|
Haruki and Witchmon sailed over the city- keeping their eyes open for the rumored-to-be-in-town Omegamon who had been spotted at various times over the last three days.
Meanwhile- across town- Hideaki's SpaceTrailmon was doing similar- with Hideaki and Rina looking out for the same Digimon.
Elsewhere- closer to the streets- Tagiru, Opposumon, and Airu all sat on Arresterdramon's shoulders as he zipped between the buildings.
Tagiru grimaced slightly as he thought back to the sight that had unfolded around a week earlier.
FLASH BACK_ _ _| THE WATCH SHOP_ _ _|
"I've called you all here to explain something important," The Watch Maker began talking to the gathered Players who had been invited to the Volcdramon tournament. "As some of you may know, I was not entirely truthful about the Nature of Digi-Quartz- a deception most of you should have figured out soon enough."
"Digi-Quartz is Earth in the future," Airu surmised.
"Yes," The Watch Maker nodded, "and the Digimon who turns it into that state is named Quartzmon. He is the true reason I set up this Ever Changing Game, a reason always ever so slightly ahead of the main goal of rescuing the Digimon trapped there."
"So what's so bad about this Quartzmon guy anyways?" The one boy from the tournament, Taiga, asked. "Is he a special capture like Volcdramon?"
"Quartzmon is much worse than that," Kaiyumi- whom a lot of people were surprised was standing with The Watch Maker, her own teammates included- corrected him. "Quartzmon seeks nothing more than the utter annihilation of Earth as we know it."
People had muttered surprises at that.
"So what do you expect us to do about it, then?" Rina asked.
"The secondary reason I gathered you all was to indirectly meddle with Quartzmon's plans," The Watch Maker answered, "Many of you have done just that by rescuing Digimon from Digi-Quartz- snatching them away from his influence...Although some of his plans were so hidden from us that we failed to stop them in time."
"Gravimon," Kaoru took center stage next- surprising those from Xros Heart who recognized her- and as she said that name, shivers went through the room. "You should recognize the name as that of one of the Seven Death Generals who worked for the Bagura Empire that was taken over by DarkKnightmon and attacked this world." As people slowly nodded in confirmation, she continued, "Yesterday, I and Kotone, of Xros Heart, had an encounter with not one, but three Quartzmon copies that prevented us from stoping a fourth Quartzmon from absorbing and obtaining all of Gravimon's powers- among them included the ability to regenerate from any state of death, including, but not limited to, complete and total incineration."
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
Tagiru shook his head out. It wouldn't do him well to dwell on it. Opposumon noticed the look on his face and placed her hand on his shoulder before giving it a squeeze.
Airu, meanwhile, was thinking back to that day as well.
FLASH BACK_ _ _|
"The simple fact of the matter is that Quartzmon- with the power to infinitely regenerate- is the ultimate power source," Kaiyumi spoke up again, before holding up the Journal with the diagram of the Stargate.
"This is a Mater-Bridge Gateway," The Watch Maker explained, "it is a device I designed to travel across dimensions nigh instantaneously. When I first activated it- Quartzmon perverted it's powers and caused it to self-destruct- destroying my home dimension entirely."
"We recently ran into a Digimon named Phelesemon," Kaiyumi continued, "he was hiding out at my school as a student. Quartzmon contacted him, and threatened him with blackmail unless he provided the power supply for this Gateway device. We stopped Phelesemon from gathering the energy, which we believe led Quartzmon towards finding an alternate power source."
"If Quartzmon has a functioning Mater-Bridge Gateway," The Watch Maker continued, "he will no doubt be hiding it somewhere in Digi-Quartz, and potentially Earth as well. While we have no clue where it may be- I would like each and every one of you to keep an eye out for any giant metallic rings with nine chevrons on its edge whenever you traverse into Digi-Quartz. We don't know when or where Quartzmon may be planning on detonating this device, but if we can find it before it's time, then we can most certainly be able to save this world and foil Quartzmon's plans."
"Detonate?" Airu spoke up, "You said it self destructed before, so you mean it's like a bomb?"
"The most deadly bomb in existence," The Watch Maker took off his shades, revealing his robotic eye to the room. "I only survived the first detonation due to my wife's intervention, but not even then without a cost." He looked across the room- meeting everyone's eyes with his own as he talked- "The destruction of a Matter-Bridge Gateway is powerful enough to make the atomic bombs used in past warfare look like water guns. When I woke up to the ruins of my world- there was nothing there but floating rock in a dimensional void."
"If Quartzmon detonates one in Digi-Quartz or on Earth- then we won't be needing to worry about what he did to turn Earth Into Digi-Quartz," Kaiyumi finished for the man, "there simply won't BE anything left at all."
*cue BURST THE GRAVITY (TV size) by ALTIMA*
DIGIMON XROS WARS
THE YOUNG HUNTERS THAT LEAP THROUGH TIME.
*cue Title Theme*
"Shapeshifter Betsumon's Bag of Tricks!"
DIGI-QUARTZ_ _ _| THE PRESENT_ _ _|
And then Haruki saw something white and gold in the streets below, floating down a road at a quick pace. "Hey, Down there, Witchmon," He pointed down at the golden-white form.
"Got it," Witchmon nodded, and diverted their direction downwards.
"Guys, we've got a potential Omegamon down near Eleventh and Smith," Haruki spoke into the Wrister that he'd been given at the Watch Shop.
FLASH BACK_ _ _| THE WATCH SHOP_ _ _|
"These are Wristers," Kaiyumi explained as she held one up, "Xros Heart used these during the war, but I've modified these ones to link to each other across time, so they should work even across Digi-Quartz and Earth." It was a silver-blue version of the normal Wristers, with a golden symbol painted on it in place of the Xros Heart logo- a Y with circles on the end of each prong.
"How do we know these'll work?" Ren asked as he adjusted one onto his wrist.
"I'll keep working on the Time Circuit links just in case they aren't working yet," Kaiyumi explained, "but for now they'll work like regular Wristers and let us keep in contact with each other on either side of the time divide."
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
"Oi!" Haruki called out to the Angemon- not an Omegamon as they'd originally thought- as they approached from behind, "You there! Have you seen an Omegamon recently?"
"Me?" The Angemon froze- then laughed. "Oh Yes! I've seen an Omegamon!" He turned around and met his eyes with Haruki's and Witchmon's. "But I think that's between him, me, and the sheets, don't you think?"
"..." Haruki and Witchmon stared at the face that was clearly not an Angemon's...
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Echoed through Digi-Quartz far and wide, even without the aid of the Wristers.
By the time Arresterdramon and Company arrived on the scene of the crime- all that remained was Haruki and Witchmon- the former holing his legs tucked up against his chest and the latter hiding herself against her partner.
Neither of them were wearing any clothes, and both were blushing rather furiously at the fact that someone had managed to steal all of their personal belongings within the span of a single second.
"That was not an Omegamon," Witchmon said before Airu could open her mouth, "and it most certainly was not an Angemon."
"Don't tell me," Arresterdramon sighed, almost as if he had been expecting this outcome for some time now, "he had a cat face instead of a metal mask?"
"Yeah, you know that guy?" Haruki asked with a slight bit of indignity.
"Ermm.." The Dragon sweated just a little, "You could say we used to be friends."
FLASH BACK_ _ _| THE DIGITAL WORLD_ _ _| THREE MONTHS AFTER THE CASCADE INCIDENT_ _ _|
In the town that had once been Heaven Zone, a Bastemon slipped through the streets as quickly as possible- being chased by a group of no-good hooligans who in turn were being chased by the local police force.
"AFTER THEM!" Gargoylemon shouted.
The Bastemon slipped into an alley-way only to find it a dead end.
"THERE SHE IS!" The Hooligans shouted, "The thief!"
The Bastemon panicked, looking around side to side trying to find a place to desperately escape...
"No escape for you now!" A hooligan smirked...
Then the Bastemon turned around to face them- while the Bastemon looked like a Bastemon in every way...it failed to do such from the face. "Oh please do be gentle," the creepy face winked at them.
"WHAT the-!?" The hooligans took a step back in shock and dismay, just moments before...
"RRYEEEAH~!"
By the time the Police officers found their way into the alley- the Hooligans were on the ground- stripped of their clothing- and the Bastemon was nowhere to be seen.
"What the heck just happened here?" Gargoylemon scratched at his forehead in confusion.
Meanwhile- the Bastemon threw off their skin- revealing themselves to be a completely different Digimon entirely. "Hahah! Oh man they so bit it!" Betsumon- a Cos-playing digimon- laughed as he slung the bag of collected clothing over his shoulder. "Wasn't that just awesome?" He glanced over at a nearby trashcan and the digimon sitting on it.
"Heh, the ol' 'damsel in distress' fake out!" Gumdramon flashed a grin at his partner in crime, "They really didn't see that coming at all!"
"Well, time to move onto the next schmucks!" Betsumon flashed a...well...it was the same perverted smile he had all the time to be honest with you. But it had a subtle tone of agreement with his friend...I suppose.
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
"So, ah," Arresterdramon said shyly as Airu fished out replacement clothes from her Xros Loader, "remember how I said I used to know a guy who did costumes?"
"This is his MO?" Opposumon asked, trying her best not to look at the two hiding behind Arresterdramon, and instead focusing more on helping Airu pick out an old costume or two that wouldn't look too out of place on the two stripped teens.
"Yeah," Arresterdramon nodded, "He'd distract people with an insane costume, and then while they were floundering at his face not matching the rest of 'im, he'd swipe their clothes right off of 'em in the blink of an eye. He's got a special bag that just tears it all right off of his targets in a blink of the eye."
"So how'd you know this guy?" Tagiru asked, raising an eyebrow at his partner's knowledge of this sociopath.
"Like I said, we... ah...used to work together," Arresterdramon scratched at the back of his head. "Not the proudest moments of my life, I can tell you that."
"Define 'work'," Airu asked.
"Weeell..." Arresterdramon began in a way reminiscent of a certain main character witch from the TV show Bewitched, but, before he could continue, Haruki protested the costumes they'd been given.
"What the hell kind of costumes are these!?"
Haruki was, of course, referring to the fact that Airu had given him a rather odd costume that seemed more like it would be more at home on a female Digimon, and given Witchmon a costume that looked like it'd be more at home on a male Digimon.
Of course, he was also referring to the fact that both costumes were utterly, completely, and stupidly un-coordinated- and looked less like costumes and more like haphazard pieces of cloth that had been placed together.
"Just be glad I had anything in your sizes, alright?" Airu crossed her arms and huffed, and although she didn't say it outwardly, a small part of her admited, internally, 'I made those right after my mind got screwed up. Don't blame me for making something completely absurd!'
Kotone and Ren were the next ones to run into the clothes-stealing Betsumon.
"Wait. You've met a real Omegamon then?" Ren asked with a bit of surprise.
"Yeah- he's a bit stuck up though, keeps wanting to be in-charge of everything," Kotone laughed. "You've got no clue how hard it was to talk him down from managing everything at the last Birthday party we all celebrated. Wanted to do everything himself. Security, cooking-It was completely bonkers!"
"Wow...I wonder if they're all like that?" Ren mused.
"Wonder who's all like what?" Came a smooth voice behind them.
Kotone froze up as Cetus yelled in her head: "We've got to get out of here!"
Ren, however, had turned around to face the speaker, "We're talking about an Ome-...ga..." He froze as well the moment he saw the body of an Omegamon with the cat smile face of Betsumon. "Oh... Um..."
FLASH BACK_ _ _|
"As a precaution," Cetus was explaining through Kotone's normal voice, "if you run into more than one Quartzmon at a time, the best thing to do is get them to attack each other, even if it's accidentally." Kotone slipped in seamlessly over a breath, "When Kaoru and I ran into those three yesterday, I lead one around in a circle and dodged it's attack just in time to have it hit one of the two that Kaoru and my partner Tsuwamon had managed to momentarily stun."
"The guy turned into a quagmire of drills," Kaoru said flatly. "Quartzmon had no clue what was happening- and when the other two got hit by those drills, the three wound up fusing together into one before they dissolved away into...data, I guess. But it was weird data. I've never seen anything like it before."
"Drills?" Simon asked suddenly, "What kind of drills?" Drills were somewhat of a specialty of theirs, after all.
"Gold and silver needle like things," Cetus said simply, "sort of like spikes, maybe?" Kotone took over once more, "The weird part was that when the other Quartzmon got hit, they spouted identical drills in the exact same places."
Murmers filtered through the room, everyone surprised at this turn of events.
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
Ryouma was not surprised at all by this turn of events as he watched the city below him from his viewpoint atop Tokyo tower.
Everyone was zipping about in search of the Mysterious Omegamon that had been spotted by a trio of recently recruited hunters.
Ryouma had made a point of not falling for the obviously fake rumors, and so he let the children play around chasing ghosts.
He would really regret not following up on those rumors later.
MEANWHILE_ _ _|
Rina spotted a flash of red down below in the streets- for a moment, she thought it was simply Witchmon and Haruki zipping through town on a lower level search.
Then Tagiru spoke up over the Wristers:
"Everyone! Our target is NOT an Omegamon! It's a Betsumon! I repeat, Our target is a BETSUMON!"
"AND HE STOLE OUR CLOTHES!" Haruki's voice shouted out moments later. "SO BE CAREFUL!"
"Down there!" Rina pointed at the red form in the streets, "That's got to be it!"
"You heard her," Hideaki said to the SpaceTrailmon, "take us down!" He brought up his wrister next and shouted into it, "Speaking of! We just found the little thief!"
"OI OI!"
Betsumon- wearing Witchmon's cape and hat- froze as a massive shadow fell over him.
Moments later- Rina and Rock jumped down off of Space-Trailmon and landed in front of him in a rather dramatic pose in their fused form.
"ERm..." Betsumon spun around before they could get a good look at his face- it was his one element of surprise! "Excuse me," he put on a falsetto voice, "but I have business elsewhere!"
"I Don't think so, Betsumon!" The clacking of a gun punctuated the sentence like an exclamation mark- and a shiver ran down the disguise artist's spine as the sound echoed massively. "Stay right where you are!"
A snarl formed on his mouth, and Betsumon twirled around dramatically, throwing the cape and hat into his massive storage bag as he spun around- dragging out a different costume in the process. "Fine Then! But if we're going to do this tango we're gonna do it proper!" He shouted once dressed in an outfit looking suspiciously like a Revolomon. "Gun Versus Gun!"
As soon as he said those words- he realized that he'd switched to the wrong kind of outfit.
His tiny Revolomon costume was absolutely dwarfed by the massive cannon mouth that pretty much took up the entire street.
"Oh what the ever loving Chocolate Fudge Sunday is that?!" Betsumon's eyes widened in horror.
"A Rainbow Cannon," Came Rina and Rocks' amused reply. He couldn't see the smirk on their face, but he could most certainly hear it.
BHWRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Betsumon gulped as he quickly spun to find a costume to shield him from the inevitable blast.
CTH'WHAAAAAAM!
The massive flood of rainbow light filled the street from end to end- painting it with a massive rainbow of permanently stained rock...
And right at the front was Betsumon whose costume- a Gallantmon X- was practically ruined, but it had saved his life right then and there- or so he thought.
In truth- the Rainbow Cannon was simply a massive for-show device and did nothing more than stain the world around it with bright colors.
That Massive cannon vanished before Betsumon's eyes, and he coughed out a cloud of fruity colors as Rina/Rock switched for a smaller, two handed cannon that was only about as long her's forearms.
"Don't even think about running!" She called out- "This one does a lot more shock damage!"
Betsumon held his position- he didn't move save for breathing awkwardly. He could practically feel the killing intent coming off of the girl.
That- and there was a giant space ship above him that could squash him flat in an instant should he even so much as flinch the wrong way.
A few minutes of waiting later, and Arresterdramon and company showed up.
"Yeah! That's the guy right there!" Witchmon nodded in confirmation to something said before they were in hearing range.
"Hey! You!" Haruki hopped off of Arresterdramon and marched over towards Betsumon, "Give me back my Xros Loader, you little thief!"
"Eh?" Betsumon feigned innocence, "What's a Cross Roader? Is it an ATV?"
"Betsumon!' Arresterdramon spoke up rather loudly, "Don't play games."
"Eh?" Betsumon frowned as he looked at the dragon, "Who the hell are you? I Certainly don't recognize ya...but yer voice..."
"You..." Arresterdramon began to say when the con-artist suddenly had a look of dawning realization.
"OHHH!" Betsumon snapped his fingers, "I stole yer parents clothes right off in front of ya, didn't I?"
"No." Arresterdramon narrowed his eyes.
"I Stripped you and yer girlfriend and left ya in an alley?"
"Absolutely not!"
"I...I don't owe you any money, do I?"
"You owe me something alright, but it isn't cash!"
"What then!?" Betsumon scowled.
Tagiru and Arresterdramon shared a look, then a nod, and then Arresterdramon shrunk down into his lower form.
"Recognize me now?" Gumdramon asked as he held his arms out to the side.
"..." Betsumon stared at Gumdramon for a few moments. "Yeeeeeah...Sorry, but I don't hang out with nor around kids. It sends the wrong message to the moral guardians!"
"..." Gumdramon stared at Betsumon for a few moments, "Yeeeeeah...Sorry, but I don't buy that load of garbage! Fess up and give them back their clothes!"
"And who are you to order me around!?" Betsumon snarled.
"You seriously don't remember!?" Gumdramon hissed.
Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, Airu and Opposumon glanced at each other, then at the arguing digimon, then back to eac hother and then the arguing digimon again. (Lather, Rinse, Repeat.)
"No really! I don't got a clue who the hell you are!" Betsumon shouted at the dragon.
"Well Fine then!" Gumdramon shouted back as he stretched his neck so he could look Betsumon eye to eye, "I'll tell you then, what you did is as follows, as such. And. Thusly."
Betsumon stared blankly at that line.
And then Gumdramon told them all what Betsumon did, as such.
And then we proceeded to watch.
Thusly.
FLASH BACK_ _ _| SIX MONTHS AGO_ _ _| DIGITAL WORLD_ _ _| FORMER!HEAVEN ZONE_ _ _| THE PRESIDENTIAL VAULT_ _ _|
"Wait. We're stealing the Presidential Inauguration ROBES?" Gumdramon- Betsumon's partner in clothes stealing- stared on in shock as they entered the Vault where everything important in Heaven Zone had been stored post-Code Crown.
"Yup." Betsumon flashed a grin as he walked over to the outfit that Lucemon had worn on his inauguration day. "The most expensive piece of clothing in this entire town."
"You're not going to turn it into some weird costume, are you?" Gumdramon frowned.
"Oh, no, I'm being paid waaay too much to get this out to muck it seamless!" Betsumon's wry way with words was rather..what's the word or phrase I'm looking for here...?...Well...It let's go with "it just doesn't hold water" and leave it at that.
"Erm..." Gumdramon grimaced at that odd thought, "Right so...how much are we being paid to jack this?"
"We?" Betsumon laughed as he stashed the costume into his magic bag of infinite cloth holding, "We are not being paid a thing. *I* on the other hand am being paid rather handsomely for fetching this."
"Hey now!" Gumdramon's ears flared up like a cat's, "I don't like the way you're talkin', Betsumon!"
"Well I'm glad you picked up on my little subtleties there, kiddo," Betsumon then placed a ring on one of his fingers and waved goodbye, "because you're gonna have a heck of a time explainin' to the coppers how I just vanished right out from under yer widdle nose!"
And with that- Betsumon vanished a moment before Gargoylemon and his Piccolomon guards rushed into the Vault.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Gargoylemon shouted.
Gumdramon cursed Betsumon's name out a thousand times in that hour as he was arrested, as such, and was placed in jail.
Thusly.
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
EYE CATCH!
Lopmon, in her human form, stood next to Cutemon, in his human form, while their Digimon forms stood in front of them- all four shared equal grins of excitement.
The disk flipped over and revealed a pink-purple outline of KinGRavemon.
EYE CATCH!
"You used me like a decoy and got me arrested!" Gumdramon summarized as such, and thusly summarized the entire situation to anyone who might not have understood that last sequence of events. "THAT IS WHAT YOU DID!"
Which was only Betsumon. (He was picking earwax out of the fake Gatomon ear on his head- nobody wants to know how it got in there. Trust me on that- and totally not paying attention to any of the above at all.)
"So...ah...What were we doing again?" Betsumon asked coyly.
Rina and Rock primed their cannon again as they said, "You were about to give back everything you've stolen."
"Errrm...Yeah, no. I don't think that's going to happen," Betsumon laughed. "See, my boss wouldn't be too happy with me returning the cloth I need to fulfill his commission, aaaand..."
The Cannon got shoved directly into his face along with Airu, Opposumon, and Tagiru all holding improvised weapons.
Hideaki- from above on the SpaceTrailmon- laughed. "So, care to tell us about your boss?"
"Hey now! He's a reasonable guy!" Betsumon sweated a little, it didn't add much authenticity to his costume. "But if I don't do this job, I'm toast! Turned over to the authorities and roasted over the sun like a marshmallow!"
"Sound familiar to anyone?" Opposumon asked- to which everyone in the general vacinity agreed unanimously:
"Quartzmon."
"Well now that just ain't fair!" Betsumon's fake ears drooped from the intense killing intent everyone around him was emitting. "Gettin' a guy all down like that when he's tryin' to be coy about who he's workin' for! It's like kickin' 'im where it hurts the most!"
"Speaking of, we should probably knock him out and take him prisoner," Airu suggested. "Who knows what kind of valuable info he's got."
"Well well, that's rather forward of you, Miss Pinky-Keen!" Betsumon whistled.
"Oh shut up!" Gumdramon spat at the fake-cat.
"So do we knock him out now," Tagiru asked, "or should we wait?"
"Wait for what?" Gumdramon asked, "For Quartzmon to rescue him?"
"Oooh, Now that's low!" Betsumon huffed, "I can rescue myself anytime I want to!"
"You're not putting any rings on," Rina and Rock pressed their cannon forward a bit more.
"But I've already got a ring on!" Betsumon's fake-cat-tail swished, showing the horribly inaccurate Tail Ring that...looked just like the escape ring he'd had on in the flashback. He faded away, leaving only his grinning mouth behind to taunt "Bye Now!" before that too vanished.
"What the-!?"
Seconds later- everyone (Excluding Airu, Haruki, and Witchmon, who instead had post-it notes hastily placed onto their foreheads) found themselves suddenly not wearing anything at all.
As all those suddenly striped down let loose shouts of shock and dismay- Airu instead inspected the post-it note that had received.
"Your...Clothes...Are...Too...Pink...For...My...Co llection." She had a little trouble deciphering Betsumon's crummy handwriting, but once she finished reading it, her temper rose. "OH THAT'S JUST GOING WAY TOO FAR, MISTER!"
Witchmon's note simply read "Tacky" and Haruki's was a string of "HA" repeated eight times.
"Um...Airu...!" Opposumon poked at her cousin's shoulder to get her attention, "Maybe you could get them all some clothes?"
"And send mine up via ladder please!" Even Hideaki, all the way up on the SpaceTrailmon, had been hit by Betsumon's sticky fingers.
After taking a quick stock of the situation- they found that- along with any clothing they had- every Xros Loader and Wrister had been snatched away- save for Airu's set. So, once Airu had gotten more odd costumes out of her Xros Loader for everyone, she went to work trying to contact anyone who might be listening.
"Oi, we've got a major problem here," Airu said into her Wrister, "that Omegamon's really a cosplayer who's going around stealing clothes and our Xros Loaders too. If anyone's listening to this, be careful! Don't let him get the upper hand!"
A few moments passed, and then...
"Kzzz-Time Chat works! It act-KZZZRRR-Sort of I gue-ZZZZZ-!" Kaiyumi's voice came through over a heavy burst of static interfeerence. "Could you repea-KKRT-again? I think we mi*ZZ*ed some of that last transmi*Zzzz*."
There was a few confused glances about, but then Tagiru repeated exactly what Airu had said moments before.
"Tagir-ZZ?" Simon asked in surprise, "What's- *ZZKRRrRrRrT*?"
Everyone sighed- obviously there were a few bugs to work out with the FluX Time Chat Wristers.
Soon enough- Kaiyumi and Cutemon arrived to observe the most bizarre scene of all.
Every humanoid present, excluding Airu, were wearing bizarre costumes. Added to the roster now was Tagiru in a Cow costume, Hideaki in a pink Cowboy's outfit (with a rather long browncoat that looked rather nice on him otherwise), and Rina/Rock in... a Gothic Black/Green Wedding dress.
She looked smug about that, however, for some odd, unknown reason.
"So..." Kaiyumi stared at them all for a few moments, "...How hung over are you guys right now anyways?"
"We weren't drinking!" Gumdramon protested.
"So Betsumon's working for Quartzmon?" Kaiyumi asked once she was brought up to speed.
"Yeah," Tagiru nodded, "he pretty much confessed to it."
"I see," Kaiyumi mulled the thought over for a few moments, putting her hand in her chin and glancing at the rainbow ground without really any real reason. "Then we have to find this guy at all costs. We can't let one of Quartzmon's allies roam free." She looked up suddenly, "Wait, how did he escape again?"
"Sort of faded out of existence," Airu explained, "why?"
"He might not be teleporting- just turning invisible!" Kaiyumi answered, turning to leave suddenly, "I need to go get something! I'll be right back!"
"Hey, Gumdramon," Tagiru ventured as they waited for Kaiyumi to return, "How did you meet Betsumon anyways?"
"Ehh..." The dragon scratched at his nose nervously, "Well, it's kind of a stupid story, really..."
"I think we've got time," Opposumon offered.
"Yeah, besides, I want to know about how you got out of that vault," Airu flashed a dangerous smile.
"Well..." Gumdramon took a breath, then began.
FLASH BACK_ _ _| DIGITAL WORLD_ _ _| FIVE MONTHS POST CASCADE_ _ _| FORMER SWORD ZONE_ _ _| NEAR THE OLD BAGURA BASE_ _ _|
It was a chance meeting.
Gumdramon stared at the Armored Digimon struggling with the massive stack of Bagura Empire styled armor in his arms. "Hey, do you need help with that?"
"Eh?" The voice from the unseen face was undeniably Betsumon's. "Sure thing!"
Betsumon had led Gumdramon towards an armored truck marked with a nondescript logo of some armor company as he explained that the company was recalling all of the armor left in disuse in the Empire bases now that the war was over.
Gumdramon had helped Betsumon, who was dressed up as a Grademon in the traditional colors for that armor company, get the armor loaded into the truck, and when that was done. Gumdramon asked the armor piercing question of the day:
"So do you really work for this company, or are you just stealing armor from people who won't be using it?"
"Nak!" Betsumon had reeled backwards and clutched at his heart in surprise, "You Got me!" And with that, he fell to the ground dramatically with a "DOOF."
Gumdramon laughed.
"But seriously though," Betsumon sat up, "I'm more of what you call...a freelanzer?"
"Freelancer," Gumdramon corrected.
"Right, that sorta thing," Betsumon laughed. "See, these clients of mine sometimes want some humiliation dished out on their enemies, or some priceless clothing brought back to their, ah, 'rightful owners' from some OTHER renegade thieves who have the policea in their pockets and basically get off without so much as a warnin' for breakin' some kid's arm."
"So you take bad guy's stuff?" Gumdramon asked. "Isn't that illegal though?"
"I take their clothes! There's a subtle difference" Betsumon corrected, "Ain't nothin' more humiliatin' than leaving some poor schmuck in the middle of da street without a scrap'a'cloth to provided any of their so called 'decency'. A lota times those corrupt coppers change their minds when they see their bosses lying in the street buck naked!"
"Niiiice," Gumdramon grinned. "So can I get in on that action, or what?"
END FLASH BACK_ _ _|
"He was a bit hesitant at first, really," Gumdramon shrugged, "but then he took me on for a time without a shred of doubt! I guess he was planning on dumping me in that vault from that first day forwards."
"Wow, if he wasn't working for Quartzmon and hadn't traped you in that vault," Airu mused, "I'd say he'd be a pretty nice guy overall."
"Yeah, I guess so," Gumdramon shrugged, but whatever else he was going to say was ended as Kaiyumi returned- holding a laptop computer under one arm.
"What we're going to do is simple!" Kaiyumi explained as she tapped a few keys, "Betsumon stole your Xros Loaders AND your Wristers! Both of those give off unique signals, and if he'd stolen one, that'd be fine! We could track him down based off of that. But given that he stole multiples, he's got to have some sort of a home base. A store house."
"That's about right," Gumdramon nodded, "he always had a sort of base where he'd stash things locally until we had to skip town."
"So, if he's got a base, then whatever he's got stolen will stop moving once it gets there, and we can triangulate his position!" Kaiyumi concluded as the tracer program booted up. "Aaand, there he is!"
Indeed- there were multiple dots on screen that were moving rapidly across the city map. He was heading in a straight line- towards the warehouse district of down-town that had been wrecked completely by Breakdramon.
"Now all we have to do is wait for the signals to stop, and then we can pin him down," Kaiyumi smirked."
As they rode in Space-Trailmon towards the warehouse district, Gumdramon resumed his story at Airu's insisting.
"So, after he left me in the vault, I got arrested," Gumdramon began, "Heaven Zone police- man are those guys forgiving of somebody getting used as a decoy." Kaiyumi and Cutemon shared a laugh at that. "But still, I did some bad stuff, so I wound up serving time. Limited sentence though, since I was just a kid being used by some other, worse criminal...But I served it, and then I got out..." he puffed out his cheek and blew out a gust of air in mockery of a static burst. "A little after that, I got grabbed by a portal and wound up in Digi-Quartz."
"Wow, that's odd timing," Hideaki noted.
"Odder than that," Gumdramon made his hand bigger, five fingered, and then jabbed an over-sized thumb at Airu, "I ran into her just a few minutes after that!"
"We did?" Airu thought on that for a moment, "Oh right! Yeah! That was the day that we found MetalTyranomon! And then...!" She frowned as her mind drew a blank- "Then what happened?"
"You chased me all over town before I managed to slip away into MetalTyranomon's territory," Gumdramon said flatly- before he noticed that Opposumon and Tagiru were looking rather uncomfortable at that exact moment. He smirked a little and threw a bit of amusement into his next words, "aaand then I ran into Tagiru just after that."
"Oh, really?" Airu blinked in confusion, "Well, I guess that makes sense. You guys did get MetalTyranomon that very same day..." A thought hit her just then, and she leaned over towards Gumdramon. "Saaay..." she began in an almost conspiratorial tone of voice, "You didn't happen to be hiding under that car that Dracmon and Opposumon investigated, did you?"
"Hahaha!" Gumdramon started to laugh- not at her deduction, but at the increasingly flustered looks on Opposumon and Tagiru. "Oh man, yooou have NO idea how close you guys were to finding me!"
"And Tagiru-" Airu's further questioning was cut off by Opposumon shrieking rather loudly:
"STOOOP!"
Gumdramon broke down into laughter while everyone else stared at Opposumon with confused looks.
"She's Right!" And then Kaiyumi came to the girl's rescue completely unintentionally by talking into the intercom that let Space Trailmon hear what his passengers were saying: "Betsumon Stopped! Stop right now!" She checked the coordinates on her computer as the screen updated with their current coordinates. "Turn towards the north-east by fifteen degrees and take us down! We'll be right outside Betsumon's hide out!"
Tagiru and Opposumon shared a simultaneous sigh of relief.
And so our team of intrepid costumed heroes approached the open hanger door to a large warehouse. Gumdramon leaned out to peer past the door, then Simon and Kaiyumi leaned out just above him. Then Opposumon leaned out, then Tagiru, then Airu, Haruki, Witchmon, and then finally Hideaki and Rock/Rina. Gumdramon muttered to himself, "This is Stupid," though to what he was referring to, either the former view stacking or the scenery inside the warehouse, it was hard to say. The warehouse was full of cloth piles and tables lined wall to wall with humanoid doll robots stitching together identical costumes. And pacing towards the back of the warehouse was Betsumon.
"Alright, let's get going!" Kaiyumi whispered.
And then the entire group fell head over heels to the ground as they all tried to move at once from that completely awkward positioning.
The noise- predictably- alerted Betsumon to their presence.
"Oh, drat," Betsumon said in a false-concerned voice, "it appears my base of ahpah'rations has been discovered. What ever shall I do?" And with that- he spun around and changed costumes once more- donning the Costume of DarkKnightmon...whose entire body under the waist was completely over-buldged in all the wrong places. "Have At Theeeeee!" He shouted in the most Shakespearean voice he could manage.
BEEP BEEP! KTHRAAAM!
And then Space-Trailmon ruined the completely dramatic show down by smashing through the roof.
"EEEEK!" Bestumon leaped straight out of the DarkKnightmon costume in shock and dismay- landing immediately afterwards in a Cardboard-box costume of Megidramon...that was horribly painted to the point that 3D JPEG artifacts had been formed out of the paint in mid air. "What nonsense is this!?"
A Flash of light occurred from the floor- and then KinGRavemon took to the now open skies.
"Oh COME ON!" Betsumon cursed as the crimson armored warrior came at him with a drop kick.
"TINY TWISTER!"
And then Kaiyumi leaped off of KinGRavemon's back and shifted into her Lopmon form mid leap- whirling up into a tornado that plowed into Betsumon's horrid costume along with KinGRavemon's dropkick.
KABLAMM!
Betsumon went flying into the air- where Rina/Rock was waiting for him, having jumped up onto SpaceTrailmon and then leaped off of the landing dock.
"SHOOTER KICK!"
"SMACK!" Betsumon shouted as he was kicked in the shoulder by a high heel boot straight down into one of his assembly robots.
"EVERYONE!" KinGRavemon held up Betsumon's bag of holding and threw out several signature costumes from it.
As Betsumon climbed out of his ruined robot, he turned to watch all those he'd stolen clothes from return to their original costumes via throwing off their present ones like they were ninjas or something. "Oh come on!" He lamented, "I thought I was the master of quick change around here!"
"Well you're NOT!" There was a flash of light yet again- and Gumdramon became Arresterdramon. "TAGIRUUU!" he howled.
"RIGHT!" Taigru held up his Xros Loader and shouted a single command: "ARRESTERDRAMON! METALTYRANOMON! DIGI-XROS!"
A beam of light shot out of Tagiru's Xros Loader and surrounded Arresterdramon in a burst of silver energy. When it faded- Arresterdramon had gained all of MetalTyranomon's cybernetic enhancements.
"XROS UP! CYBE-ARESTERDRAMON!"
"Just who the hell do you think you are HUH!?" Betsumon quickly leaped into a pile of clothes and emerged in a RustTyranomon costume. "I am the Mighty-!" Cybe-Arresterdramon leaped across the room at mach speed and delivered a mighty "Corkscrew Tornado" punch with the claw arm. "KRRRK!"
He was sent flying out of his costume and straight into- and then through- the roof, only to come down a moment later on the opposite side of the factory.
"AIRU!" Opposumon called out to her cousin, "Do you still have that pig costume!"
"Eh?" Airu seemed surprised all of a sudden, "You want THAT?" This was completely out of nowhere.
"Without the helmet this time though, please!" Opposumon then added- "And get me a Xros Up with Witchmon while you're at it!"
"Well alright then!" Airu held her Xros Loader up and shouted the command for that particular costume change while Opposumon shifted into her Human form.
"Sure thing!" Haruki held up his reclaimed Xros Loader and called for a Xros between Witchmon and Opposumon.
For the dazed Betsumon- and pretty much everyone else watching- it seemed like Opposumon was Digivolving just like Arresterdramon and KinGRavemon had in the minutes before.
"XROS UP," Chou shouted, having basically gained her previous costume with the additions of Witchmon's gloves, boots (both replacing the pig armor boots and gloves), hat, cape, and broom (which was held as a weapon). "WITCH MODE!"
Betsumon stared on in confusion, "Wait- what?"
"HRRRRRAAAHHHH!" And then Chou leaped at him, improvised weapon held back like a baseball bat.
The room shook as a mighty "BROOM!" resounded across Digi-Quartz- knocking what little remained of the roof off into the atmosphere as the soundeffect became a visual effect to those watching this in an animated format.
Betsumon- after receiving one Legendary BROOM!-ing courtesy of Chou and Witchmon- was hogtied up in his own bag of holding. He wouldn't be going anywhere- especially since everything on his person had been stripped away (It was Gumdramon's idea), leaving him just as humiliated as every single one of his victims.
This left our heroes free to search the room for anything else the little thief might have stolen while in Digi-Quartz.
"Hey wait a second!" Rock (who had by now split apart from Rina) called out as she held up a familiar looking hat. "Isn't this Ren's hat?"
"Oi, it is," Airu stared at it in surprise, "Did he get hit by Betsumon too?"
"Hey, guys!" Simon held up Kotone's Xros Loader, "This is Kotone's!"
"...as is this..." Opposumon grimaced as she held up a familiar looking shirt.
"Hey, here's Ren's Xros Loader!" Tagiru picked up the silver device- and an instant later- Ren's DemiDevimon reloaded, tears in her eyes and panic in her voice:
"REN AND KOTONE GOT LEFT IN AN ALLEY WITHOUT ANY CLOTHES!"
"Ah- right-" Hideaki grabbed the Xros Loader, and whatever stray clothing they could find that matched Ren and Kotone's wardrobes, "Lead the way, little Woobat! I'm sure they're plenty embarrassed about that given-"
"NONONONONOOOO!" The DemiDevimon shook her head furiously, "That's not the problem! That's not the problem AT ALL!"
"Erm..." Hideaki grimaced a bit, "What is then?"
"They...they...!" The 'little Woobat" comment should more perhaps have been aligned towards a Water Type Pokemon instead of a Flying Type, given that a massive torrent of tears started flowing out of DemiDevimon's eyes. "THEY JUST IGNORED HIM AND THEN...AND THEN THEY...THEY...!"
The sentence need not be finished as DemiDevimon fainted on the spot, landing simply on a pile of clothes.
"Wow...I had no clue Digimon could faint like that," Hideaki remarked simply as he observed the swirly eyes on the poor Bat.
After reviving the poor DemiDevimon, Hideaki took SpaceTailmon to find the missing Ren and Kotone...
"What the hell...?" He stared at the scene before him in confusion.
The two of them, of course, had moved away from where Betsumon had stripped them, opting instead to wait patiently inside a Magic Shop that had coincidentally been near by.
They were playing Reverse Strip Poker.
Each time one of them lost- they'd put on some random piece of clothing from inside the old shop.
Apparently each had lost so many times that they'd resorted to turning random objects from the shop into clothing items and wearing those. The oddest part of it all was that Kotone had one of those fake-flower-water-squirting-bouquets resting on her head as if it were some kind of hat, and Ren...
Well...
The less said about his present, super bizarre state of dress the better.
"Told you." DemiDevimon said to Hideaki with a whimper, "They just didn't care and went about like there wasn't anything wrong at all."
"JENGA!" Kotone slammed down a stack of cards that didn't even belong to any valid Poker game at all. Ren groaned in dismay at his luck and grabbed an empty box that showed a plastic cauldron on the sides- before dumping it on his head like a hat.
"Stop hoarding all the Eights!" He lamented.
"I...I think we should... just let them be for now," Hideaki said with a slight stutter of confusion, "they... look like they're having fun?" He didn't sound too certain of that fact.
"Agreed," The DemiDevimon whimpered once more.
"Third-ed," SpaceTrailmon agreed.
TO BE CONTINUED.
BEGIN: ACT 3 INTERMISSION 17.
For the first time in his entire life, Betsumon was regretting stealing someone's clothing.
"Huh, so that's all he does?" Ren asked without a hint of embarrassment. "Steals people's clothes?"
"Seems like!" Kotone agreed, also without a hint of embarrassment. "So...should we let the others know, or just ignore him for now?"
Betsumon stared on. "What!?"
"I say we just ignore him," Ren shrugged, "trolls like that get what's coming to them eventually. If he's going about messing with people, he's going to get the exact same treatment from them before the day's out, especially with Airu and Opposumon around."
"Ah, good point!" And with that, Kotone started walking away.
"Hey! Don't you walk away from me!" Betsumon protested.
"Ah, so what should we do about lunch then?" Ren asked Kotone as he followed instantly. "We don't exactly have any cash on hand at the moment."
"HEY!" Betsumon's temper flared, "Stop ignoring me!"
"I know! Let's play cards 'til someone beats him and returns our clothes!" Kotone suggested, "Whoever loses the most has to buy lunch!"
"Sounds fun!" Ren agreed by giving a thumbs up, "So where shall we begin?"
"Waaaiiit!" Betsumon was near crying, "Stop ignoring meeeee~!"
They continued to ignore him even as they entered a Magic shop to locate a deck of cards.
A short time later, Kotone glanced out the window to see SpaceTrailmon hovering outside- "Oh, look, I think they beat Betsumon."
"Eh?" Ren glanced out of the corner of his eyes...
"JENGA!"
...Only to lose for the ten-thousandth time that day.
"Grrraahhh..." He groaned, and reached for the Magic Kit box-hat. "Stop hoarding all the Eights!"
"That's three lunches you now owe me, Ren! Count 'em out!" Kotone flashed a wry grin at the boy across from her, "One! Two! Three!" She counted out in English.
"Fiiineee..." Ren conceded her the victory, "Now can we get going now? My legs are getting cramped up from sitting here for so long."
"Haha...!" Kotone's grin became very impish, "What? And miss out on all the fun of watching you suffer at my victory at Nonsense Card Games?"
END: ACT 3 INTERMISSION 17.
NEXT TIME!
"Alright Betsumon! Sober up and tell us EVERYTHING!"
"Like I'd ever betray my client-patient confidentiality agreements!"
"Don't worry, we've got ways of making him crack."
"So what? We just go to school and hope everything pans out OK?"
"AHAHAHAH! AS IF!"
"What? Hey, what are you doi-!?"
"TAGIRU!"
"Uh oh."
"I. Will. MAKE YOU PAY!"
"Next Time: Digimon Xros Wars! Persian Espionage!"
"O...kay... That title's about as subtle as a brick."
"IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE YOU BAAA~KAAAA!"
"...Eh?"
A.N.: Good grief this chapter has just been a PAIN to write. It's Betsumon. It really...really...REALLY is. Bluh Bluh. Huge Troll. Anyways...Life has been busy for me. I started Art School today! :D Buuuut...I also ran over a curb and gave our car a flat tire during Driving Practice today _;;; {I think I'd rather not ever get behind the wheel of a car ever again.} Anyways. These chapters run on their own schedules. I can't really force an episode out before it's good and ready to be released. Please be patient with me, folks. ;)